Verdi Productions set to film Vinny Paz biographical movie

August 15, 2013

(Photo: James Bessette)
The upcoming film on Vinny Paz, which will be co-produced by Chad Verdi, will center around the boxerâs road to recovery after a devastating car accident in the early 1990s.

EAST GREENWICH â The first six films Verdi Productions created within the last four years were, seemingly, the pre-fight hype.
Come this fall, the main event will commence for the local movie-making firm based on Main Street.

Scheduled for preproduction in October, producer and East Greenwich resident Chad A. Verdi, along with Oscar-winning producers and some of Hollywoodâs elite writers will begin the much-anticipated project entitled âBleed For This,â the true-life story of Cranston native and former world champion boxer Vinny Paz that will highlight one of the more tremendous comebacks in sports history.
âItâs going to show the peaks and valleys. Itâs going to show the triumph and show who (Paz) is,â Verdi says. âWhether you like Vinny or not â we love him; heâs a dear friend of mine â he did what no one else was able to do.â
The upcoming project will feature Bruce Cohen, whose film credits includes the film âAmerican Beautyâ â a picture that took home five Academy Awards in 1999 â Martin Scorsese (The Departed, Goodfellas), Noah Kraft and Emma Tillinger Koskoff as the producers. Ben Younger, who has been involved in projects such as âBoiler Roomâ and âPrime,â will be the director.
âBleed For Thisâ will be Verdiâs most ambitious film to date for a myriad of reasons. In contrast to his previous movies where the budgets hovered around the $1-million mark â âLoosiesâ being budgeted for $4 million â the upcoming story about the former prize fighter is budgeted for $16 million.
âThis is going to be a learning process, too,â Verdi says, âbecause we donât have the luxury of bringing in 50 people and spending three months doing location, scouting and shooting the film in three months instead of three weeks because itâs budgeted.â

For the rest of this story and more local news, pick up an August 16 East Greenwich Pendulum.